Campus Chronicles with Scott Jenks

This past weekend was a memorable one in Griffville, especially for the nine seniors on the team. The team played our last two regular season games of the year, which decided our fate for the upcoming playoffs.

On Friday night, the Ice Griffs faced off against the Mercyhurst Lakers in the last home game of the season. For us nine seniors, it was an extra special game, as it would be the last time we took the ice at the Buffalo State Ice Arena for a home game. It was a sad thought to think that this would be our last game in Buffalo, but we needed to put it in the back of our minds as we had an important game to play.

With many family and friends in attendance for the special game, the Griffs came out on top in a big victory against the Lakers. After the game, all nine seniors - Eric Rex, Phil Rauch, Taylor Anderson, Patrick Kenney, Derek Danowski, Chris Forsman, Cory Conacher, Vince Scarsella, and myself - were honored on the ice alongside our families. Each player's career was summarized in a short bit of words over the speaker system as he hugged each one of his teammates and family members. We were very happy to get the win in our last home game, and having our families there with us to experience it was a great feeling.

On Sunday at noon, the team met at the Hyatt in downtown Buffalo for our annual banquet. This year, the format of the banquet was changed, as it simply consisted of the traditional senior speeches, instead of the usual full awards ceremony. Each senior got the chance to make a speech highlighting fond memories from the past four years, and more importantly, thank everyone that helped him along the way.

It seems like just yesterday that I came to campus and met the nine guys that I would be spending the next four years with. Our time here together has been incredible on and off the ice and throughout it all, we have become as close as brothers. A theme of the speeches on Sunday was how amazing all the people that we have met here at Canisius are. Being a part of the Canisius community, and the Golden Griffin hockey team has been something that has made us better people, and has left us with a ton of great memories.

Though the regular season is over, and the seniors have given our speeches, we still have a lot of hockey left to play this year in our white, gold, and blue jerseys. On Saturday, we once again travel to Niagara for our first game of the playoffs. The game will decide who will go on to compete in the best-of-three series of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs next weekend. It seems perfect to think that Canisius and Niagara will be meeting in a game like this. The rivalry has become more and more intense over the years and meeting them in a game that will decide who goes on and whose season is over brings it to a whole new level.

Saturday night will be the biggest night of our year, and the biggest night of the nine seniors' careers to date. Our ultimate goal is an Atlantic Hockey championship, but for right now, our only focus is on the task at hand: defeating the Niagara Purple Eagle at Dwyer Arena.